Riello Roberta, Geroldi Cristina, Zanetti Orazio, Frisoni Giovanni B
Laboratory of Epidemiology and Neuroimaging, IRCCS San Giovanni di Dio, Brescia, Italy.
Behav Med. 2002 Fall;28(3):92-8. doi: 10.1080/08964280209596047.
Behavioral disturbances in Alzheimer's (AD) patients might be caused by environmental factors. The authors tested the hypothesis that delusions in AD might be a result of caregiver's distress. Participants were 22 delusional and 21 nondelusional mild AD patients and their caregivers. Those who cared for nondelusional patients, compared with the delusional patients' caregivers, reported higher levels of distress because of behavioral disturbances other than delusions. When patients were stratified into 2 groups according to median distress value, 64% of the delusional patients and 33% of the nondelusional patients showed a high level of caregiver's distress, chi2(1, N = 43) = 3.94, p = .047. Although final conclusions about the causal direction of the association cannot be drawn, these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that distressed caregivers might use inappropriate coping strategies that, in turn, might favor the development of delusions.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者的行为障碍可能由环境因素引起。作者检验了一个假设，即AD患者的妄想可能是照料者痛苦的结果。研究参与者包括22名有妄想症状的轻度AD患者、21名无妄想症状的轻度AD患者及其照料者。与照料有妄想症状患者的照料者相比，照料无妄想症状患者的照料者报告称，因除妄想之外的行为障碍而产生的痛苦程度更高。当根据痛苦程度中位数将患者分为两组时，64%有妄想症状的患者和33%无妄想症状的患者表现出高水平的照料者痛苦，卡方检验（1，N = 43）= 3.94，p = 0.047。尽管无法就这种关联的因果方向得出最终结论，但这些发现与以下假设一致，即痛苦的照料者可能会采用不恰当的应对策略，而这反过来可能会促使妄想的形成。
